UEFA heavyweights are in Dublin today for crunch talks with the Government about the ongoing FAI crisis.
General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis is European football’s second in command and spearheads a four-strong delegation to Leinster House this afternoon.
Zoran Lakovic, UEFA's Director of National Associations, will also be a central figure in the talks with Minister for Sport, Shane Ross.
Last May in Switzerland, Lakovic and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin met an FAI delegation of Donal Conway, Rea Walshe and ex-board member Eamonn Naughton.
UEFA financial director Josef Koller and Deputy Director National Associations, Thierry Favre, complete the delegation from Switzerland.
But Theodoridis’s trip to Ireland is a sign of how serious UEFA are taking the FAI’s grave financial predicament.
The UEFA chiefs arrived in Dublin yesterday and will meet FAI bosses separately before their meeting with Ross.
Roy Barrett, the newly installed independent chair of the FAI board, executive lead and vice president Paul Cooke and board member Martin Heraghty will attend.
It is believed the trio are available to attend the later meeting between UEFA and the Government if required.
The FAI - whose debts have spiralled north of €62 million - need an immediate €18 million cash injection to stay afloat.
The Government rejected a direct bailout request before Christmas and maintains it won’t ‘write a blank cheque’.
But the appointment of three of the four independent directors to the FAI board last week was a significant development.
The FAI wants round table talks this month with the Government, UEFA, Sport Ireland and Bank of Ireland to thrash out a rescue plan to prevent liquidation.
If the FAI goes under, hundreds of staff will lose their jobs and the international teams at all age levels will cease to exist.
But having the independent directors in place will help facilitate those collective talks and headway on that front is expected today.
UEFA has bankrolled the FAI since last summer and has already pumped €15 million into the strained coffers to keep the troubled association afloat.
That cannot continue indefinitely but UEFA is confident that the Government will find a working solution at their summit today.
After the FAI AGM in December, Ross declared: “The government does not see either liquidation or Examinership as a viable option for the Association or for Irish Football.”
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